


Forgotten friendship

by Pearlislove



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio)
Genre: Audio 05: UNIT Encounters, Bittersweet, Childhood Friends, Childhood Memories, Gen, Invocation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-14
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-03-04 12:19:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13364574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pearlislove/pseuds/Pearlislove
Summary: The forgotten friendship of Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and Ben Donnelly.





	Forgotten friendship

**Author's Note:**

> Hi yes UNIT: Encounters was amazing and Invocation got me dead so here i am!

“Daddy?" Hearing someone talking in the vicinity of his leg, The Brigadier looked down from his pile of paperwork which had just happened to come along on the vacation. If Fiona ever found out, she'd hate him for certain, but currently it did not bother him. Smiling, he looked down upon his seven year old daughter instead. "Daddy can I go play with my new friend?"  
  
A childish giggle could be heard from the door opening, and The Brigadier smiled as he saw the head of a small boy watching them through the crack in the door. "Sure Tiger, just make sure to stay in the house, will you?"   
  
"Yes daddy!" Kate answered, already running for the hallway and the boy waiting for her outside. "Dad said I can come and play Ben!" She exclaimed, slipping through the crack and disappearing before he could say another word. The Brigadier simply laughed, casting a last glance at the empty doorway before returning to his work.  
  
\--  
  
"Where are we going to go?" Ben asked, giggling. "My momma will be busy for hours!"  
  
"My dad is busy for days!" Kate said proudly. She certainly had Ben beat at that. "That's what mum always say."   
  
"More time to play!" Ben screamed enthusiastically, slapping Kate on the arm. "Tag, you're it!"   
  
Kate laughed delightfully, running down the corridor and chasing after her new friend. As she came round the corner, she almost tripped over, sliding on her hands and feet a few meters, but it didn't become the child. She was way too caught in the game and the delight of having a new playmate to care for a few scrapes and bruises.  
  
Back home with her mum, Kate didn't have many friends. Her mum always said if she was going to bring home friends, their parents had to be 'respectful' and 'up to standard'. Jate didn’t know what that meant, but for whatever reason, none of her friends parents seemed to be. Of course, Kate had a few friends at school, but it was hard to make friends when they couldn’t come home to you.  
  
But neither she nor Ben were home, and her mum wasn't there, so Kate could play with her new friend as much as she wished.  
  
"Kate! Come here!" Sticking his head around a door, Ben gestured for Kate to join him on the other side. It was a particularly rusty and old-looking door, and it seemed perfect for some afternoon adventures before tea, so Kate eagerly joined him.  
  
The room, or more like, corridor, was dark and damp. There were no lights, and she couldn't see further than a few meters ahead of where she was standing.   
  
"Scary, isn't it?" Ben crept up behind her, standing on his toes to look over her shoulder. Secretly, Kate felt very satisfied that Ben was shorter than her. It made her feel powerful.  
  
"Yeah" Kate smiled, a mischievous glimmer in her eyes. "Last person to reach the other end is a trash bag!" She exclaimed, running as fast as her legs would carry her and making sure to get a headstart. She was not a trash bag, and she was most definitely not going to lose against a boy.  
  
"Kate wait!" Ben called for her, but Kate didn't listen, fully expecting him to outrun her once she'd stopped to hear him out. Instead she kept running, throwing herself straight into the darkness out of sheer stubbornness. She was not a weak little girl, she could do this.  
  
Half way into the darkened corridor it doesn't feel as fun anymore though. She can feel her stomach churning, and it feels like when you eat too much ice cream and end up throwing up, except this time it's not because of ice cream and she doesn't like it.  
  
"Ben?" Kate wonders where Ben is. It’s dark and suddenly it wasn’t even fun to be winning anymore. "Ben I'm scared." She whimpered. It was bad. She felt like she was going to throw up now. The shadows and the darkness was even scarier than before, and more than anything else, Kate wanted some to come help her.  
  
Ahead of her Kate could suddenly see a gray shadow starting to form. It looked vaguely like a human, and for a moment she almost thought it was Ben, but then it grew, reaching out towards her with it’s hand.  
  
Terrified, tears streaming down her cheeks, she tried to back away, but it only kept coming closer and closer. Finally, she could feel something grabbing onto her shoulder, and she screamed at the top of her lungs.  
  
"KATE!" All of a sudden, she was back in the well lit corridor, her father’s arms wound tightly around her as he held her close to his chest. “Schhh, Tiger, it’s okay. I’m here.” He hugged her tight, and Kate buried her head in her dad’s chest.  
  


“I was so scared.” Kate whispered, clinging tight to her father. Normally she tried not to act like such a needy baby, as her mum called it, but she really had been scared in that room.

 

“I know tiger, I know.” The Brigadier patted his daughter on the head affectionately. “But it’s over now.” Patiently, he attempted to put her back on the floor, smiling as she immediately took to standing on her own two feet.

 

“I know daddy.” Kate said, not protesting as her father put her down on the floor. Being back in the well lit corridor outside, it felt much less scary than it had back then, and she was eager to prove she was not a baby. “You can go back and work now.”

 

Determinedly she walked over to Ben, who was sitting by the wall. He looks sad, and Kate wonders if she looks sad, too. She didn’t look back to see if her dad actually left, but she knew he did. His job was important, more than her. Even on vacation.

 

“Hi Ben.” She said, smiling at her friend as she sat down beside him. 

 

“Hi Kate. I’m sorry I left you, but when it’s scary you should get an adult. So I got your dad and he helped you. I would have gotten mum but you’d want your daddy.” He smiled, grabbing her hand and squeezing it. He’d seen his mom do that, when she wanted to comfort her friends, and he wanted to comfort Kate.

  
“Yeah. Dad always make things good. I don’t care if mum don’t like him, I like him.” She looked down at the hand Ben was holding, squeezing it back and smiling.

 

“I like your dad.” Ben said, laughing. “He is  _ impressive _ .” Ben took the chance at use a word his teacher had taught him right before the break. It was long and adult-sounding and he liked to use it. “Also, I hope you’ll still be my friend, even if I was mean and left…”

 

“Of course. You’re one of my best friends! I don’t want to stop playing with you!”  Kate protested, as desperate as only a little child about to loose her best friend could be. Without any better choice in thought, she wrapped her arms tight around Ben, holding him in place and stopping him from leaving.

 

Ben laughed, hugginng her back. “Then I won’t!”

 

\----

 

Exhaling heavily, Kate leaned back the pillows in the bed she was currently borrowing. Though she wouldn’t admit it, she was tired, and though she needed rest she preferably wanted to leave the old house as soon as possible.

 

_ How had she forgotten?  _

 

Suddenly, everything was coming back to her.  She was remembering, all the memories she’d spent years repressing suddenly returning to her at once, a ton of bricks dropped on her head without warning and blowing up her headspace. She couldn't focus or think, couldn't even begin to sort through her thoughts and feelings as a headache became to build, the unfortunate side-effect of having her brain overrun with long forgotten memories.  _ Or maybe that was the blow to the head she’d apparently suffered earlier _ , she thought bitterly. No matter what, facts were that persons and places she had long since forgotten was coming back to her in crystal clear details

 

The memories of what had used to be haunted her, hurting with every throbbing beat of her headache.

 

“Why?” She whispered, burying her head deep in her hands. “Why did I have to come here?!” She regretted it. She regretted it more than anything she had ever done in her life, but she wasn't ready to give up.

 

She was a Lethbridge-Stewart,and if there was anything that a Lethbridge-Stewart didn’t do, it was give up. Sucking in a deep breath, she sat up a little straighter in bed. 

 

_ She could do this _ .

 

She was going to find out why she was being led back here, to this house and to all those memories. Whatever was going to figure it out, and she was going to fix it. She was going to make it all better, because that’s what she did

 

If not for herself, then fir the boy she’d used to know. The measure hair and kind eyes and childish laughter that echoed inside her scull.

 

She was going to fix this for Ben.


End file.
